Chicago Transit Authority board member Howard Medley has continued to profit from a multimillion-dollar O`Hare International Airport contract while facing federal corruption charges, city records show.
Medley, convicted Wednesday of accepting a $25,000 bribe, is the 25 percent minority partner in a $17.6 million contract to repair taxiways and a taxiway bridge at the airport, initially awarded in 1986 during the administration of Mayor Harold Washington.
In addition, records show, cost overruns of more than $650,000 that were submitted to the city received final payment approval this month. The overruns boosted the construction price tag to more than $18.2 million for Greco Contractors Inc., a Des Plaines firm, and Medley, the minority partner in the deal.
”This contract predates the Daley administration,” said Marj Halperin, a spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Daley. ”What you have is modifications to an existing contract which we did not start and for which we did not choose a contractor. We entered the game too late to choose someone for this job.”
Greco officials and Medley said last year that they would need the additional funds to comply with a request by the city Department of Aviation to expand centerline lighting of the inner taxiway and to replace the concrete pavement to allow 747-type aircraft to use that taxiway.
Alexander Grzyb, the city`s purchasing agent, who was interviewed before Medley was convicted of bribery by a federal court jury Wednesday, said the additional payments were approved as an extension of an existing contract.
”As far as the city doing business with Medley, my understanding of the statue is the person has to be convicted of bribery to be barred from doing business,” Grzyb said.
Asked about the O`Hare contract as he arrived at the federal courthouse to hear the jury`s verdict, Medley said, ”I don`t know anything about no contracts.”
In recent years, Medley and his company, Medley Movers and Storage, have had pieces of several contracts as minority participants, including the snow- removal contract at O`Hare.
Last year, Medley indirectly shared in a controversial multimillion-dollar ash removal contract awarded to Fred Barbara Trucking Co., a firm owned by a nephew of Ald Fred Roti (1st).
In that contract, the minority subcontractor was listed as Brunt Brothers. But records in a federal lawsuit indicated that Medley financially controlled the company.
